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OGRE's avatar

I forget where I saw it, but someone was pointing out how modern art is basically a method of dumbing down society as a whole. Later on it morphed into a money laundering scheme, as so many things do.

Art was once inspirational, it made people strive to do better. Seeing what others can do is always a good motivator for people to grow and try new things. But modern art doesn't even pretend to motivate. It just leaves people asking, "Why? What is the point of this? I could do this in my sleep…" Or, the ever popular, “That’s our tax dollars at work.” as one shakes their head in disbelief.

Seeing exemplary work by another person(s) sometimes makes what might seem impossible -- possible.

It’s one of the things I’ve noticed over the years. There aren’t many people who strive to be the best anymore. Where I’m from we call it badass. Why does any kid want to become a super hero? Because their super hero is badass! Their favorite super hero is the best at something, or at least not easily matched. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to exceed, and that tendency is natural -- it’s why comic books are a successful business.

Modern art is an attempt to remove that want to exceed, because look how well this random person did with their nonsense “art.” I mean, why try to do better when you can drop something on the floor, take a picture of it, and it’s considered “modern art?” Remember the banana duct tapped to a wall? The work of art is titled Comedian, it’s by Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian artist and an absurdist. That’s right, there’s a category of art called Absurdism. The banana duct tapped to a wall sold for $120k.

You have to breed complacency into society to arrive at a point where modern art is considered exceptional. I don’t want to live in a society where modern art is the best anyone can produce. I always say, “It’s not art if I can do it without practice.” I’m not inspired by things that I could do by accident, or on the first try, why should I, or anyone else be? Modern art inspires people to become grifters (con artists). Look at that, another form of art, con jobs.

On the money laundering side, most of the excessively expensive modern art is purchased by government organizations, not private individuals. Is it so hard to believe that the “artist” who made that art might not give a little incentive to the government employee who authorized the purchase? For example, the artist sells their “modern art masterpiece” to some government agency for $1.6 million, then the artist pays for the authorizing government employee and their family to go to Europe for a month on an all expenses paid vacation.

Of course that’s just a hypothetical, but I wouldn’t doubt that these kinds of things go on. We know money laundering happens with a number of other government programs. Like $10 million for gender studies in Pakistan -- where it’s arguably illegal to be gay. Where is that money really going, because I don’t see Pakistanis lining up to hear about 52.5 genders?

Modern art is the best for of con “art” out there.

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Hot History's avatar

Probably since the 1950s or so, Western art has become insufferably ugly. Postmodernism, deconstructionism, Dada—not sure the cause, but we need a return to the classical aesthetic ideals of the Renaissance.

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